NBA 2022: Is Milwaukee Bucks star Grayson Allen a dirty player? Insiders weigh in

The Twitterverse went ballistic, as the Twitterverse is wont to do, after Allen, now with the Milwaukee Bucks, fouled Chicago Bulls guard Alex Caruso on a layup attempt last week, resulting in Caruso fracturing his right wrist and Allen receiving a one-game suspension.

Suggested penalties ranged from Allen being suspended for as many games as Caruso misses — without pay — to incarceration.

Allen’s reputation for questionable tactics began at Duke, when he tripped two different opponents within a two-week span as a sophomore. He had a similar incident as a junior and was suspended for one game by the school.

Shortly after being drafted 21st by the Utah Jazz in 2018, Allen got into a scrum with Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young in the Utah Summer League. Then, after being traded to Memphis in July 2019, Allen was ejected from a Las Vegas Summer League game for back-to-back flagrant fouls on the Boston Celtics’ Grant Williams.

Contrary to what social media, a Chicago Sun-Times columnist or Bulls coach Billy Donovan might lead you to believe, though, this is not standard operating procedure for Allen as an NBA player. It is just the third flagrant foul of his four-year career and the first flagrant-2, distinguished from a flagrant-1 as unnecessary “and excessive” contact committed by a player against an opponent.

The Bucks disagreed so strongly with Allen‘s suspension that they took the rare step of issuing a statement, expressing their objection.

I asked a sampling of scouts and assistant coaches what they thought of both Allen’s foul on Caruso and Allen’s reputation as a dirty player. The views were decidedly mixed on both.

“I like Grayson, and I hate Caruso,” an Eastern Conference scout said. “He’s always complaining to the refs and scrapping around guys, hacking guys. I don’t know that he’s dirty; he’s just a hack. That’s definitely a really hard foul [by Allen on Caruso], but I feel like it was such a split-second play that he couldn’t have premeditated it. I don’t think it was on purpose.”

A Western Conference scout agreed with the part about Allen’s initial intention but stopped there.

“I don’t think his initial thought was to take Alex down, but when you are making a play on the ball and coming across bodies at that height, nothing really good is going to happen, even if you tie it up,” he said. “The fall is going to be off-balance and hard.

“After watching from a closer angle, he does finish off the foul by grabbing A.C.’s arms, basically making sure he hits the deck. I’m glad he got a game but thought, with his history, he might get two.”

An assistant coach who has worked with Allen described the foul, on a scale of one to 10, as an 8.7.

“I really like Grayson, but he can’t help himself,” the coach said. “He obviously loves to compete, but he goes too far.”

The biggest issue the assistant coach saw was Allen’s seeming lack of remorse. Indications from the Bulls are that Allen never reached out to Caruso afterward, as is considered customary.

“It bothers me that stuff like this doesn’t bother him,” the assistant coach said.

- Fox Sports US